Alright vs. All Right

[Fenris]

Hi Nathan,

A friend of mine who has worked as a writer for years finished editing my MS a few days ago. Among his comments were statements following my frequent uses of "alright" which insisted that "alright" is not a word, and to use "all right" instead. What are your thoughts? Do you think it really matters?

[J. T. SHEA]

The Mighty Microsoft Works Word Processor Spell Checker disagrees with your friend, Fenris. And who are we to argue with The Mighty Microsoft Works Word Processor Spell Checker? Alright?

[Watcher55]

I was tasught this way: alright is all wrong. ah'ight?

[Guardian]

"all right" is the most accepted and correct spelling, while "alright" is an alternate spelling which is used often but disputed as to whether it is correct or not (Usually not as it's rather a slang edition of the original form). Personally I suggest; "all right". But maybe I'm mistaken.

[Nathan Bransford]

This is one to tackle in copyediting. I'm honestly not sure and can't imagine an agent is going to trip up on it.

[Fenris]

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll stick with "alright" then, since that's what I tend to type out of habit.

[polymath]

I recommend resort to an English usage dictionary for insight into the contexts, debates, and usages of contentious diction principles. Webster's only has two pages of discussion on alright versus all right. Of note, alright usage appears more commonly in journalism publications and comic books, and less commonly in literature than all right. Then there's the regional dialect a'ight, pronounced ah-ight or ight.

[cheryl-murphy]

I think it's going to really depend upon who you query. Some agents are super nitpicky and if this isn't the *only* thing they find in there, it might just add up to a rejection.

My opinion is to just stick to proper grammar and most grammarians will tell you that "alright" is not a word, no matter what the meaning. The less you have to turn someone off, the better. Why take the risk over something so silly?

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/al ... right.aspx

"Alright" is slowly gaining acceptance but only because it just doesn't seem to want to go away. Even dictionaries are starting to add it (fortunately, not all do). You can thank musicians for that. Just like Eric Clapton's "Lay, Lady, Lay" is grammatically incorrect, so is The Who's "The Kids are Alright."

[Fenris]

Thanks polymath, cheryl. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for them after all. Worst comes to worst, I'll just use the "find" function to replace all the errant "alrights" before I query. Better to be safe than sorry, right? Opinions may differ, but it's probably better to go with the option everyone seems to be okay with.

[Emily J]

I suppose I support a descriptivist view of grammar than than a prescriptivist view. While the word "alright" is less common, I would argue it is still acceptable. My college days were a few years ago, but I do remember my grammar professor claiming that "alright" was alright.

Of course, there may always be people that view alright as an error. So, if you are using it, you run the risk of that being viewed as a mistake.

P.S. I just looked it up in "100 Words almost everyone confuses & misuses" and that book claims alright is non-standard usage. So, even though I would argue it's fine, unless there is a compelling reason to leave it in, I would suggest just using the more standard all right. All right? :)